Marriages

Chico

Starting with the oldest brother we have the certificate of Chico marrying Betty Karp in Chicago on 3 Aug 1917. They divorced in 1940. Betty later married Jerome Greene in 1958.

Maxine Marx in “Growing Up with Chico” says that her parents were invited to dinner by “a young married couple named Rothchild” who, before dinner, said they should call a rabbi (Moritz Ungerlider, as per the 1914 Chicago city directory) and marry the two. Which is what happened. Groucho was so angry he wasn’t invited that he didn’t invite Chico to his marriage three years later not too far away, at the home of Ruth’s mother and step-father.

According to the 1917 Chicago city directory there was a Sadie and Samuel Rothschild living at 4705 Michigan Ave., about four blocks from the Marx house.

Is he the Rothchild who was a friend of Chico? Well, he ran a hotel in the South Loop that was thought to be a gambling den and house of ill-repute. He was also picked up in a vice raid in 1920 that busted up numerous gambling dens, including one which the papers called “Chicago’s Monte Carlo” (Chicago Tribune 22 Nov 1920) and was located at 4508 Grand Blvd. Next door to the Marxes. Also picked up that night was known Chico associate Nick the Greek. So I think we have the right Rothschild.

The building on the site now looks to have been built sometime in the era of the wedding, but I’m not sure if it’s the original house. If it is, then 4705 would be one of the three apartments on the left. The Rothchilds are enumerated on the 1920 census at this house and there are three families in 4705 and three in 4707, which makes it appear that it was a Chicago six flat apartment in 1920, so this building being the actual site seems likely.

Chicago tax records lump this house in with the commercial building to the left. The records say the building was constructed in 1910, but doesn’t say which building. It certainly seems to me that this is the correct place.

They were enumerated third in the building, which leads me to guess it was either the top or bottom apartment at 4705, on the left.

Chico also married Mary Louise De Vitha in Beverly Hills, CA on 25 Aug 1958 at the home of Philip Raisin. Harpo and Gummo were present. In 1960 Philip Raisin was living at 1168 San Ysidro Dr., Beverly Hills (as per http://rescarta.lapl.org/) The house was built in 1947 so we can assume this is where Chico was married.

I couldn’t find a marriage certificate for that one, but I did find an interesting story and accompanying photograph from the Los Angeles Times 26 Aug 1958.

Harpo

Next is Harpo. Marrying Susan Fleming in Fullerton, CA., 28 Sep 1936.

Harpo, in Harpo Speaks, has a dramatic retelling of he and Susan’s wedding morning. Harpo stayed up all night playing poker. Later in the morning he threw on clothes and the disguised couple left Los Angeles heading south, to avoid gossip columnists. They ended up in Fullerton, got the license, and then went from Justice of the Peace to Justice of the Peace looking for one willing to marry an oddly dressed pair. They found a justice and Harpo says that they found two witnesses, Louise Johnson and W.H. Skillman, in a next door firehouse. Although actually the firehouse wasn’t next door, it was underneath them. Fullerton’s first firehouse opened in 1926 at 123 W. Wiltshire Blvd. and shared space with the City Hall above it until the new City Hall was opened in 1942. At which point old City Hall was converted into sleeping space for the firemen, and later razed. Fullerton’s second fire station wasn’t built until 1953. Harpo says that they were “pronounced man and wife, upstairs in the firehouse.” This is the firehouse.

Groucho

Groucho married Ruth Johnson in Chicago, IL, 4 Feb 1920. They divorced on 15 July 1942.

It’s been reported that they were married in Ruth’s parents’ house. (And that Groucho heckled the minister throughout). Ruth’s biological parents were Oscar L. Johnson and Elizabeth Josephine Matthews. But Elizabeth married John Delano in Chicago in 1919. (And also, I think, in Lake County Indiana in 1917). So I’m assuming that Groucho and Ruth were married at the home of her mother and step-father, at 6115 South Calumet Ave., Chicago- as per the 1920 census. It’s now a vacant lot.

Then Groucho married Kay Gorsey at the home of Arthur Sheekman in Hollywood, CA on 21 Jul 1945. They divorced on 12 May 1950.

And finally married Eden Hartford in Twin Falls, ID on 17 Jul 1954. They divorced in Dec 1969.

Gummo

Gummo married Helen Theaman in Manhattan, NYC on 3 May 1929.

Zeppo

Zeppo married Marion Ruth Bimberg in Manhattan, NYC on 12 Apr 1927, at the Chalfonte Apartment Hotel, 200 West 70th. The building still exists. They divorced 17 May 1954.

Zeppo married Barbara Ann Blakely in Las Vegas, NV on 18 Sep 1959. They divorced on 1 May 1973.

Arthur

Going forward a generation we have Arthur marrying Irene Kahn in Beverly Hills, CA on 27 Feb 1943.

Maxine

And Maxine marrying James “Shamus” Culhane in Beverly Hills, CA on 15 Nov 1946.

Melinda

Melinda married Mack J. Gilbert in Los Angeles on 8 Dec 1966. They divorced in March 1969.

She married Sanh H. Berti. I found two records of marriage. One in El Paso, TX on 12 Mar 1969 and another in Los Angeles on 4 Apr 1970. They divorced in September 1976.

She married Jack Leung in 1985.

And going back a generation we have the brothers’ parents Samuel Marx and Minnie Schoenberg marrying in Manhattan, NYC on 18 Jul 1885.